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Can I use Canva for educational purposes with students under 13?

Canva is a great tool for teachers and students wanting to create their own designs. As we aim to make designing simple and easy for everyone, Canva has a number of permitted and prohibited uses of the tool, elements from our library, and images you upload which apply to education users.

Under the age of 13

Students under the age of 13 are permitted to use Canva with direct supervision by a parent, guardian or another authorized adult (e.g., a teacher) as per section 1 of our Terms of Use.

Content creation

When uploading your images, it is important to be aware of copyright and licensing restrictions, as well as the prohibited uses of Canva. This is covered under Section 4.2 in our Terms of Use .

Section 4.2 “You agree not to submit User Content that: (i) may create a risk of harm, loss, physical or mental injury, emotional distress, death, disability, disfigurement, or physical or mental illness to you, to any other person, or to any animal; (ii) may create a risk of any other loss or damage to any person or property; (iii) seeks to harm or exploit children by exposing them to inappropriate content, asking for personally identifiable details or otherwise; (iv) may constitute or contribute to a crime or tort; …”

Copyright and licensing

Permission to use Canva depends on the elements included in the design and the purpose or intent of use. If your design has elements from our image library (even free elements), it is subject to our One Time Use License Agreement.

Prohibited Uses

It is not permitted to use Canva in a way that will harm anyone, so there are restrictions on what images you can upload in your Canva account.

These include, but are not limited to, these common issues:

Uploading images when you do not have the necessary rights to do so

Images that are obscene or objectionable

Usage that is criminal in nature

Some more of the prohibited uses of Canva (Section 4) are the following, but not limited to:

Use stock media in ads or promotional materials for adult entertainment clubs or similar venues, pharmaceutical or healthcare, herbal or medical products, etc.

For any other concerns, send us a message and someone from the support team will be in touch.

Hi {{ticket.requester.first_name}},

Thanks for reaching out and for your interest in using Canva for this project.

Canva aims to make designing simple and easy for everyone, which makes it also a great tool for both teachers and students who wish to create effective educational materials.

Having said that, there are permitted and prohibited uses of the tool that is clearly discussed in our Terms of Use.

**Section 1:** Eligibility - Any use or access to the Service by anyone under 13 who is not directly supervised by an adult is strictly prohibited and in violation of this Agreement.

**Section 4.2:** Uploading User Content - This section specifies our policy on what can and can't be uploaded for use in designs, and what is stated there is official, unlike everything I'm about to write which is only to guide your understanding. The spirit of that section is to prohibit the use of Canva with ill intent, so it mentions topics very much related to those you mention on the assumption that they'll be used in that way - with ill intent. In your case it sounds like the intent is education only, and that's definitely something we're happy to support when it's done responsibly.

For additional information, please feel free to check out this article from our Help Centre.

I hope this helps, and please let me know if you need further clarification or have any other questions I can help you with.

Hi {{ticket.requester.first_name}},

Thanks for reaching out about using Canva in your classroom!

We're excited to make Canva available to students, but we have to ensure we comply with the relevant laws around working with kids 13 and under, specifically the 'COPPA' act.

Legally we cannot knowingly collect "personally identifying information" from people under the age of 13, including details like their full name and their email address. In Canva's case, this could also extend to photos they upload into their designs, or personal information they write into their designs.

However, we now grant teachers permission to serve as guardians in the creation of a Canva account provided that the students are given supervised access in the classroom.